The present invention relates generally to safety systems for automotive vehicles, and more particularly, to rollover protection systems and methods for detecting rollovers in automotive vehicles.
Vehicle safety systems such as dynamic control systems and certain airbags such as side curtain airbags rely upon a determination of whether the vehicle is rolling over for deployment. Dynamic control systems include rollover control systems that use a determination of the roll condition to prevent the vehicle from rolling over by applying the brakes or changing the steering direction. Side curtain airbags rely upon the roll condition determination for proper timing of the deployment of the side curtain airbags.
Many rollover control algorithms rely upon the lateral motion of the vehicle to determine the roll condition. The signals are not always adequate to determine rollover events such as low G rollover, slow rollovers, and soil trip events.
It would therefore be desirable to provide an improved roll condition determination for activation of safety devices in an automotive vehicle.